savagesketch wrote:Special early Christmas present for you all! Our review of I COME IN PEACE, a.k.a. DARK ANGEL is live! Feel free to rate and review the show on iTunes, Stitcher, and wherever else you describe! Enjoy! This was a blast to record! Major thanks to Moltisanti for his help and witty insight!

• The initial title LETHAL CONTACT dates from Jonathan Tydor's original screenplay that he wrote in 1984 (before THE TERMINATOR came out I must add). Back then the project revolved around a genetically modified human soldier from the future, sent as a scout to prepare for an invasion of a rogue army looking for a new world to conquer... But the 48 HRS. concept was already there (and there hadn't been that many buddy movies at this point).The script was well received and turned around from producer to producer, including John Carpenter who was gonna produce it for Paramount with Andrew Davis in the director's chair. Ultimately it got the hands of Mark Damon and Moshe Diamant who first got Farhad Mann of MAX HEADROOM to make it. To make it short, after many rewrites the future aspect was asked to be removed and they brought in David Keopp (BAD INFLUENCE, JURASSIC PARK, SPIDER-MAN etc) and his then partner John Kamps to rewrite it and that's when the project was retitled DARK ANGEL in around 1987-88. Then of course Craig Baxley and Dolph Lundgren came on board, after they had been previously involved in a post-ACTION JACKSON Joel Silver project called MAN TO MAN that was canceled a few days before day 1 of filming (Baxley re-used ideas from it, like the car chase going through the mall, which was set in a Vegas casino in the previous project). Baxley rewrote the script as well which Tydor and Koepp weren't too thrilled about. Koepp didn't use his real name because he didn't think the movie would do well...

• For me, who have known it as DARK ANGEL from even before they filmed it (Dolph announced it as his next film to be shot right after THE PUNISHER), this title is both a more or less subtle play on words with "archangel", and the dichotomy of the "bad alien" (named Talec in the script) albino look, his actions and his "I come in peace" catchphrase (plus often people or creatures coming from above the sky/beyond the stars are often mistakenly taken for angels at first). So he's a "dark angel", an anti-angel. I hear what Molt says about it being a little cheesy or like a bad horror movie, yet my guess is back in the day their intention was to go for "mysterious", not to be on the nose or too literal of what the movie is. And I guess before Triumph Films changed it for the US market (which was the last to get a release), nobody thought of calling it I COME IN PEACE. I COME IN PEACE is surely original and catchy and I would have loved it more had it been used first. For sure people's views on the title depend where they're from and which they knew of first...

• The 7-8 days missing of Caine to me is that he and his partner were working were preparing their bust and disappeared from everyone for "safety". I have to check the script again because I think it's made clearer.

• Regarding the flying deadly discs and PREDATOR 2, I don't know if there was a direct influence or if both projects had the same idea, but what's for sure is that DARK ANGEL / I COME IN PEACE was already released in Korea and Taiwan by the time cameras rolled on PREDATOR 2 in February 1990. Given that the former took almost a year to come out in the US, both films were released in the fall 1990 in America whereas Baxley's movie was completed and ready for delivery/release by the end of 1989.

• The visual effect supervisor was none other than Bruno Van Zeebroeck who since built a very impressive credit list: he was an assistant on PREDATOR and DIE HARD and later coordinated VFX on big movies such as Fincher's ALIEN 3, Tony Scott's UNSTOPPABLE, TRANSFORMERS REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, RED, BATTLESHIP, GANGSTER SQUAD, Michael Mann's BLACKHAT, INSURGENT, and Tarantino's THE HATEFUL HEIGHT. (And what I just found out is that he also helped on JOSHUA TREE / ARMY OF ONE)

• For the space gun, Baxley wanted it to be like ROBOCOP's but more lethal and enhanced.

• The alien cop's death happening as a sort of explosion from "inside out" of himself was meant as the way these aliens die.

• I never felt the film had too many subplots or characters because it's really well tied together. If there may be a few things left out not completely resolved or unclear in the end, I don't mind it because they're not indispensable and you can fill in the blanks. I don't necessarily enjoy movies where they beat the audience telling or explaining them every little detail, especially in this case which is essentially a comic book fantasy, a contemporary and futuristic western dealing with sci-fi and outer space elements where Dolph Lundgren is David and an even bigger giant is an alien Goliath... And it really comes together in every department, and it's a perfect ending to the craziness of the 80s action/sci-fi and the beginning of the 90s.

• The cheap comics that was discretely published a few months after the US release had only two issues, but the guys behind it apparently wanted to make an entire run that would be unrelated to the film's storyline

• On a personal note, since I first saw the film in June 1990, I've been moved by Dolph's crying performance when he finds his partner dead, underscored by Jan Hammer's guitar theme

I also love the scene when he's at home drinking his glass of wine and thinking about his girlfriend (there again Hammer's love theme is really nice and simple)

Yeah, I'm sure he was much in demands since he was known for "Miami Vice" but he had his own solo career and probably focused on his albums and other commissions. His score for DA / ICIP is fantastic, best example of late 80s synth music... So sad the score was never released and as I understand it, it's not feasible, making it impossible for labels like Perseverance or Intrada to pick it up and produce it.

I forgot to mention how the US release, much like RED SCORPION, had a good number of screens with 1,200 States-side, but they didn't have the marketing budget to support it. So it's like they gambled on getting a sleeper hit based on word of mouth...

Baxley's movie was completed and ready for delivery/release by the end of 1989

It actually seems likely that the initial plan was to release the movie for Christmas 1989.

officialmatthiashues Feb 23About to pitch a sequel that very well could blow your socks off if we get this through. Set in Sweden in the snow where trails of blood make it easier to follow the Dark Angel in his new Lair

punisher_book @officialmatthiashues Awesome idea to set it in cold Sweden (ie Dolph's native country), but I thought you said MGM was holding up the sequel rights and wouldn't sell them to anyone?

Dom O’Brien: The first film I have to ask you about is Dark Angel (aka I Come in Peace 1990). This is a personal favourite of mine and I watch it every year as an alternative Christmas film. With it having gained a cult fan base (much like a lot of your films), I bet there are a lot of fond memories from being part of this film.

Matthias Hues: Oh yes this is and always for will be my favourite movie, the best memories and most fun on the set if you like adrenaline for breakfast. I had more then one challenge on a daily basis, mainly to stay alive where the explosive team and stunt coordinator argued with the director if it be smart to have me to this or that as it might kill me. All I kept overhearing is the director saying, he just has to be faster or jump higher. No worries he can outrun all explosions. Mind you I was nearly blind in the film, more or less. Wearing the white contacts I only could see shadows, I was let around the set most of the time by an assistant once I had the contacts in so I wouldn’t run into things.

Once we ran through the shot, I simply remembered the steps I had to take, like running over the cars. I rehearsed this all morning and when the take came I put on the contacts and did it all by memory while the last thing I overheard is the explosive guy saying that if I miss this or that car or stand still on them while running I will be blown up. But the race wasn’t over there. I needed to clear a jump through the window, on fire and land on a small rig built 70 feet in the air, which was packed with a camera and someone to catch me. I arrived with so much speed it was a miracle I didn’t take us all down. Your adrenaline is so high, but if I would look at it now and have someone explain it to me and say this is now what you are going to do, I would say, do it yourself..!

But this is the beauty of film making, while you at it, your brain is on vacation, or better yet like an athlete on tunnel vision running the 100 yard dash.

Dom: Because Dark Angel is such a action heavy film, are there any particular stunts from the film that were personal favourites? I have to say the one sequence that continues to stick in my head is when Jay Bilas’ good alien finally catches up with you. Mayhem ensues and copious amounts of cars explode in a hail of gunfire as you leap across them, before jumping out of window. I just love the execution and editing of that sequence.

MH: Oh yes, looks like I answered that above, he he! But seriously my favourite part as well and surely the most insane thing I have ever done being nearly blind doing all of that. I mean doing it with clear eyesight is no problem. With the contacts you would see through a milk glass with no contours just like you if run through the heaviest fog in your life. I guess we all know the feeling driving your car through fog and how helpless you feel. I wondered to this day if there are white contact lenses you actually could see through but I guess not.

I find the long-lasting career of Matthias Hues thanks to DARK ANGEL / I COME IN PEACE alone to be pretty admirable. Right place at the right time, in an era when with a modest flick that was not a huge success one could still make a name for himself in the action DTV realm of the 1990s...